Pre-tax retirement savings shrink your taxable income, so each dollar saved costs you less than a dollar of take-home pay.
401(k) rate
Saved per year
Federal tax
Take-home
0%
$0
$9,870
$68,628
5%
$4,250
$8,935
$65,313
10%
$8,500
$8,000
$61,998
15%
$12,750
$7,065
$58,683
With state income tax
State tax depends on where you live. These rows show the effect of a flat rate on top of federal taxes; plug your own state's rate into the paycheck calculator.
About $68,628 for a single filer in a state with no income tax, based on 2026 federal brackets, Social Security and Medicare. That is $5,718.96 a month or $2,639.52 every two weeks.
What tax bracket is $85,000 in?
For a single filer, after the standard deduction the top dollars are taxed at 22%. The average federal income tax rate is much lower, 11.6%, because lower brackets apply first.
How much does a 401(k) save in tax?
Putting 10% ($8,500) into a traditional 401(k) lowers federal income tax by about $1,870 a year for a single filer, so take-home pay drops by less than the amount you save.